The time is the 1920s and women have just secured the right to vote, are enjoying new found independence and some are even entering the work force. One such woman, Catherine Donohue, is a wife and mother of two living with her hard working husband, Tom, in a Chicago suburb.
Intent on augmenting the family income, Catherine (Samantha Hawk) pleads her case to Tom (Michael Church) for starting a job at the Radiant Dial Company. Steadfast in her aspiration, she begins work full of enthusiasm, making 8 cents for every watch whose hands she paints with radium to make them glow in the dark.
Some individuals at the time promoted radium as a cure all for all sorts of ailments, from arthritis to high blood pressure and dyspepsia. With little thought for the health implications of her job and aware of the consensus regarding radium at the time, Catherine joins others at the plant treating radium as if it was some harmless substance not worth thinking about.
Based on a true story, the play by Melanie Marnich has Catherine beginning to bond with her fellow workers, a trio of friends who engage in the healthy competition of seeing who can paint the most watches every day.
As the new kid on the block, she does get some rough treatment from Charlotte (Danette Pemberton), one of Catherine’s feistiest fellow workers. “What interesting hair,” Charlotte comments to the new hire on day one. “And I don’t mean that as a compliment,” she adds.
The other two on the shared work table, the jokester Pearl (Kodie Warnell) and more reflective Frances (Johnna Lefebvre), are immediately accepting and downright congenial.
From time to time, the company boss Rufus Reed (Michael Phelps) stops by chat, offers encouragement and commend sthe top production achievers, and every thing seems amiable as the workers bond over the years and become “family.”
Things start to take a darker tone when the radium painters begin to notice aches, pains and other maladies cropping up from out of no where. Trips to the company doctor, result in reassurances that all is right and the advice to take aspirin.
When the women’s health deteriorates even further, visits to a non-company doctor raise terrifying alarms when they’re told their ailments are in fact lethal.
With little hope for recovery, Catherine leads the quartet, with the help of a pro bono attorney, and takes the company to court. As if things weren’t dark enough, the women are ostracized by their friends and rebuked in the media for being money grubbing malcontents.
The court case was appealed six times by the company and finally taken to the Supreme Court. For all her trials, Catherine eventually got a $5,000 settlement, a hefty amount back in the early 1930s. Unfortunately, she died 3 weeks later.
Director Barbara Burgess-Lefebvre makes good use of the small but effective set by Alex Keplar, having her actors exit the stage promptly at the end of each of the many scenes needed to tell the story. The effect is that you hardly notice the transitions from one scene to another.
As the lead character, Hawk shows a good range of emotive command that starts with a mood of optimism and self-confidence that slowly wanes when health issues raise warnings about her future. Even though she shows herself as weakened and distraught by her maladies, she courageously perseveres in her legal challenges that eventually paved the way for other workers to have a more protective work environment.
Give South Park Theatre staff credit for bringing such a moody play to their summer season. Based on fact, this quasi-documentary is not only enlightening for highlighting the progress the working class has made over the past century, but it also has intrinsic entertainment value for those who don’t mind a bit of a history lesson along the way.
These Shining Lives is at the South Park Theatre through August 12. For tickets, phone 412-831-8552 or www.southparktheatre.com.
To see a preview of the play, click here.
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